Contested Zone field notes

How It Works

Executive Hangar timing, self timers, and the few caveats worth keeping in your head mid-run.

Executive Hangar Timer

The Executive Hangar timer follows a strict, repeating cycle divided into three distinct phases.

Red Phase

All lights start red and turn green one by one, every 24 minutes. This phase lasts a total of 2 hours.

Important: Do not insert Compboards during this phase. The hangar will not open.

Green Phase

Once all lights have turned green, they begin turning off one by one, every 12 minutes. This phase lasts 1 hour.

Important: You can insert Compboards and open the hangar during this phase.

Black Phase

After all lights are off, there is a 5-minute blackout period before the entire cycle resets to Red.

Note: The lights may also appear black if another player has already inserted all the Compboards, triggering the door to open early.

From extensive testing during the 4.0.1 Preview, the timing cycle appears to be universal across all servers, shards, and regions. That means you can trust the timer regardless of where you are playing, with no need to physically visit the hangar to check its status.

Important Details

  • Upon a new patch or possible server maintenance, the timer may be inaccurate for a day or two until it has been reset and validated.
  • The timer can be anchored by the site admin through a global config timestamp when the shared cycle needs correction.
  • If the hangar is blacked out while the website shows it should be in the Green Phase, another player has usually already opened the door. This does not affect the timer cycle itself.
  • There is a known graphical bug where all lights may appear black despite no Compboards being inserted. Once the next timer event triggers, the lights should correctly display their intended color again.

Self Timers

Each Contested Zone includes dedicated Self Timers to manually track individual objectives like terminals or keycards. These tools operate independently of the Executive Hangar cycle and offer fine-grained control for multi-objective runs.

  • Use the + / - buttons to adjust the countdown duration before starting.
  • Click Start to begin the countdown. Click it again to pause the timer, then Start to continue.
  • Use the Reset button to restore the timer to its default duration at any time.
  • Timers persist locally in your browser even if you leave or refresh the page.

Note: These timers are device- and browser-specific. They do not sync across sessions or users.

Timer Colors

White - not yet started

Red - counting down

Yellow - under 3 minutes remaining

Green - timer complete